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Ella Breezeborn
Captain of the 10th Guards, Scion of the House of Breezeborn, The Silent Lady Age: 24 Affiliations: Azhahad Guard, Sorcerous College, House Breezeborn Description Tall as befits one born and raised within the far better off sections of the city of Azhahad, Ella is possessed of a distinctive muscular thinness that is the obvious marker of a well trained warrior. Her hair is cut quite short, reaching only to her shoulders and is rarely free of the braids she sets it into each day. She carries the distinctive 'look' of a Scion of Breezeborn, with all the fluid grace that that entails, and as a member of that House's main family she has blood-ties to - at least - half the noble families in the city. She is rarely seen outside of her Guard uniform in public, far preferring its well cut usability over the drapes and gowns that would be more 'appropriate to her station' at social events. Yet she is far more striking in the midnight blue and silver of the Guard than she ever was in a ballgown - even her mother has come to accept this eventually - and the well-made sword she carries on her hip is a fuller protection then any chaperone. On the street in her day uniform, she is most definitely not one to cross, and it's said that in the districts of the City she served in before, gangs would spread the word of wherever the Silent Lady moved. No reason has ever been given for this, but the word has passed to every criminal organisation in the city. Where Ella Breezeborn goes, it pays to be careful. Personality Ella has seen the corruption within the city of her birth since she was small, although not through any measure real of exposure to it. Her House is actively involved in a great deal of the charitable work of the city, maintaining a degree of amiable relations with the lower classes that some more reactionary merchant nobles have described as verging on the actively profane. Ella had heard and seen far more of the truth of the Azhahad by her tenth birthday than most of her station see in a lifetime. Whilst many would be hardened by the relative horror of the life the lower classes of the city must endure - even with the Breathing to aid them - Ella refused to close herself off from the suffering the inequality inflicted upon her. Yet this compassion did not leave her unmarked - and is believed to be the reason behind the truly harrowing experience of her Gift awakening. She still carries the scar of that pain inside her, but in the end the experience granted her far more than it took. The relationships Ella forms are characterised by her almost supernatural magnetism as a leader, and the men and women under her command have bee nknown to exhibit and almost fanatical loyalty to her. For her part, Ella does everything in her power to live up to this loyalty, seeing it as one of the most powerful of the bonds that holds the Guard together. She actively - albeit quietly in some cases - despises those who break faith with their comrades and this conviction has spread to every unit she has commanded. History The House of Breezeborn is perhaps one of the ten most powerful Houses in Azhahad and their line has an almost disturbingly pronounced tendency to produce scions with sorcerous Gifts of a very particular nature. These Gifts formed the basis of the Breezeborn's reputation for honesty and complete discretion that led to their meteoric rise through the ranks of Azhahd's circles of power five centuries ago. Ella is the second child of the direct family heads and is related through cadet and main branch marriages within her family to a good two thirds of the Azhahad's peerage. She has yet to begin tapping into those deep reservoirs of political power, but they are certainly there. Having manifested her Gift of Silence at the age of fifteen, Ella was entered into the Sorcerous College very quickly - her family's influence there allowing them to bypass the general restrictions - and she attained proper mastery of the Gift within two years. Adjusting to the emotional consequences of the initial manifestation, which left her older brother and two servants incapable of speaking for most of three months, was harder. It never got beyond her family, yet dealing with the knowledge that she could take away another's ability to speak - possibly permanently - was a sobering lesson to the young girl. Joining the Guard at the age of eighteen right out of the College, Ella is one of the youngest humans to have attained the rank of Captain in the Guard's history. One might be inclined to point to the influence of the Breezeborn in this calculation, but it was her swordsmanship and stunning ability as a leader that informed the vast majority of the decision. That she was Breezeborn Gifted with Silence was also a major consideration in her elevation to the rank of Captain. Ella's first duties were simple ones, more tests of her ability considering her youth than any true matter of import, but in each she excelled. Certainly not a match for the more skilled political weavers of the City, but her use of 10th Guards elevated the flagging regiment back to very close to the height of their ancient prestige when two years ago they effectively cleared their district of any serious criminal element in a series of masterfully coordinated strikes. To the 10th, Ella is the spiritual successor to their First Captain Jane Breezeborn and they are almost fanatical in their devotion to her for restoring their honoured name. It is said that a blacksmith shapes a sword to the hand of its wielder, and the same is true in its own way of soldiers. In Ella's hand, the 10th becomes a sword unlike anything the Guard has fielded in many long years. Their assignment to the Harbour district is their first true test, and if they succeed even in part, their star will be certain to continue to rise for many years to come. Advantages *Guard Officer 1 Commander of the 10th Guards regiment, the most respected unit ever raised by the City, is a truly prestigious post, but in the time before Ella was elevated to the Captainship it was only that. A mark of prestige, and little more. Ella...changed that. Any Captain must be a competent with the weapons of their choice, and Ella is no exception. Whilst not as exceptional with the sword as other Captain, she is more than competent for the post. Yet her true mastery lies not with any blade of steel, but with a blade forged of armoured flesh. *Leadership 1 Probably the true reason that she was elevated to command of the 10th at such a young age, Ella has one of the best tactical minds of her generation and she's already had practice honing it. Yet that is not all that she is. To those under her command, Ella is a beacon that they all look to and somehow even more. She is a surrogate mother to her recruits, a sister to her veterans and yet always remains the undisputed master of any unit she is assigned to. And as a commander, she is all but without peer in her generation. *Nobility 1 The House of Breezeborn came to the city of Azhahad little more than a hundred years after the city was truly founded, establishing itself with quiet authority within the fledgling Crater District. A family clearly possessed of money, connections and - as became known later - Power, their House is one of the several that banded together to found the Sorcerous College. They have supported the College almost without care for its conscience ever since, and that combined with their almost unique Powers catapulted them high into the City's power base. Five hundred years later - give or take a few decades - and the House of Breezeborn has risen to towering stature among the Merchant-Noble families of Azhahad. Of the three things that they came to the City with, they have cultivated the last two most - whilst they are a rich family by any accounts, they are not the Gurdens or Orlids and their wealth is perhaps even a shade lesser than the Darzi given their continual support of the Sorcerous College. However, money appears to have never been more than a tertiary goal for the Breezeborn. And when you look at the connections and level of sorcerous Power they have openly attained, one must wonder how high they truly go. The House is related by blood to a good two thirds of the City's peerage, even holding a faint blood connection to Andronikos Apirat himself. And their success in - somehow - keeping at least three Gifts totally monopolised within their own bloodline is something that several of the founding families have never really learned to accept. Ella is not the heir to the empire that her family has forged over a dozen generations, but in her own way she could come to hold even more power. As the spiritual heir to Jane Breezeborn, one of the greatest Lord Marshalls that Azhahad ever saw, many have seen her assignment to the 10th Guards - the regiment raised by her several-times-great grandmother - as a prelude to far greater things. And there are many Guard families now beginning to remember the debts that they all owe to the heir of the one who saved the city that their ancestors were sworn to protect. *Silence 1 One of the three Gifts that still remain stubbornly within the Breezeborn family line alone, the Gift known as Silence is one that the many families who specialise even in part in information gathering have learnt to curse. The Gift grants exactly what its name implies, total silence. Depending on their training, a Silent may exert their Gift in many ways. Making themselves totally silent is a favoured trick by some, but most prefer the same initial training as Ella to start with. The ability to create a field around them where they can be heard, but from which no sound extends. It is this trick that is so hated by spies, and it is also the one that allowed Ella to enact her stunning anti-criminal strike across the entire Crater District two years ago. And there is a last, never-proven to be real,use of the Gift. The ability to, terrifyingly, rob another of their ability to speak *Swordsmanship 1 As expected of one of her station, Ella was trained in bladeswork from a young age, although she showed little patience for the intricate dances of a duelist. At her own request - relayed of course through her parents at that age - her tutors designed a very different syllabus for her to practice. She learnt weaponswork, not dueling, and this proved to be an advantage when she joined the Guard, for there is no place in street-brawl melees for the gentlemanly rules of a duel. Her skill with a blade saved her dozens of times as a junior officer, and she does all she can to maintain that edge.